NFL 2019: Draft

You are here

Pages

Kyler Murray: Watching Murray, it's easy to see why he's rated so highly. He's highly athletic, with a cannon for an arm. You're talking about a guy who is only slightly slower than Lamar Jackson, with arm strength that will be in the elite rung of NFL quarterbacks. In a draft class with no seemingly "sure thing" QBs, Murray is the gamble who has the most tools on offer.

His biggest question mark isn't his height. It's decision making. Murray succeeded in college football on pure athleticism. It's not that he made bad decisions per se. Rather, it's that his athleticism kept him from having to make many hard decisions. When the athletic play was there, he took the athletic play. He didn't have to go deep into progressions, as both the system and his athletic talent provided opportunities to exploit. That he has only one year of starting experience means there's precious little tape of him making the kind of reads he'll need to make at the NFL level.

His second biggest question mark isn't his height either, but his overall bulk. Murray weight in at 207 at the Combine, but his playing weight at Oklahoma was more like 190, and some suggest it went down to 185. That's simply not enough mass to take the beating that an NFL quarterback will receive, even in this don't-touch-them era. Media types were fixated on his height measurement, but NFL types were more concerned about that weigh-in. Weighing 207 won't hurt Murray's athleticism one bit, but the question is if that's a number he can sustain.

Murray is a guy that has played on the stacked winning teams since high school. The deck has been shuffled in his favor, and playing teams that aren't inferior to his is going to be an adjustment for him. He's got great tools, but whether he has the skills to read defenses and the body to hold up in the NFL are big questions. I'd grade him a mid-1st.

Drew Lock: Drew Lock in a clean pocket looks like a top 10 selection. Drew Lock in an unclean pocket looks like a mid-round draft pick.

Lock is an extremely high variance player. He's a gunslinger and someone you can see tearing up defenses in the right situation. He's a guy who can make the challenging throws that only a few special arms can dare attempt. He can throw off-platform, from odd arm angles, meaning he physically can make throws from a poor pocket. But in those poor pockets, the decision making goes out the window. He trusts his arm and he's just gonna throw it.

Unlike the top two guys, Lock isn't a one-year starter, but he really didn't show the passing accuracy to play NFL ball until his senior year. It took him 4 years of starting to get to this point.

Lock helped himself at the Senior Bowl. He followed a good week of practices with being the best QB on the field in the game. He threw an underhand pass in the Senior Bowl because that's the kind of thing this dude would do. He's got an edge to him. There will be memes.

Lock gets compared to Jay Cutler a lot, but he often reminded me of another player: Brett Favre. Don't think about Brett Favre at his Hall of Fame career peak. Think of Brett Favre the 25-year-old quarterback who was driving Mike Holmgren and Steve Mariucci to early gray hairs. Lock isn't quite as freewheeling as Favre, but who ever will be? But he has that same kind of looseness on and off the field as Favre, not as tight at Cutler. He's going to win over the locker room of the team that drafts him.

That high variance worked out for Brett Favre, and it was so-so for Jay Cutler. There's a lot of ways Lock's career could go. He's my #2 QB, though, because he has potential that the rest of the list doesn't. He also has the highest potential of being the draft's Blake Bortles, so, there's that. Still, I'd grade him a late 1st.

Dwayne Haskins: Haskins is a smart QB, probably the QB in the draft whose grasp of the mental game is least in question. He has a quick, compact release that can distribute the ball around the field. Brett Kollman compared him to Jimmy Garoppolo, and that's a good comparison for how he plays: a lot of quick throws, feeding a lot of different receivers in the short and intermediate game.

He has little mobility to offer, regardless of Stephen A Smith calling him "more of a runner". In actuality, he had 108 rushing yards last year (1.4 per carry) and ran the 40 at a Leftwich-ian 5.04 seconds. In an era of increasing QB mobility, he is a traditional pocket-only passer.

Where Haskins raises question marks, besides his lacking mobility, is his ceiling. He has a very good chance of being Matt Stafford, someone that hangs around the middle point of NFL starting QBs. But his tools make it harder to see him going above that.

Like Murray, Haskins only has a year of tape to show, but at least his tape shows a lot more progression reads than Murray's. Still, his tape is full of screen passes and other college-level concepts that are less useful for NFL grading. When he did throw deep, it exposed the fact that his arm power isn't at an elite level.

Haskins is probably the guy most ready to step onto an NFL field and start. There's plenty of value in that. But there's a good chance he will be described at some point in his career as a "system QB". Putting him in a vertical passing offense would likely be a mistake. He's the same sort of QB as Nick Foles, who got that second-tier caliber QB contract this offseason from the Jags. That's where Haskins is most likely to peak. I grade him a 2nd rounder.

Will Grier: Grier is a prolific passer who lacks the arm power for serious 1st round consideration. This guy has New England Patriots written all over him. Both Brady and Garoppolo had arm strength as a knock against them on draft day, and they both physically improved in that area after joining the NFL, as well as got put into an offensive scheme that values quick delivery over making tight throws in holes. I will be so not shocked if Belichick tabs this guy as his next Garoppolo. The Chargers would be another great fit for Grier. Philip Rivers has average at best arm strength, and the offense is tailored to it.

The concern with Grier is that the offense has to fit what he can do, and there's concern that his ceiling could be Andy Dalton, another guy that's made a career out of playing around his limited arm talent, but who obviously is on a much lower tier than those other comparables (with the jury still being out on Jimmy G). I think he belongs as a late-2nd, early-3rd round pick.

Daniel Jones: Daniel Jones was coached at Duke by David Cutcliffe, who coached both Peyton and Eli Manning in college (QB coach for Peyton, head coach for Eli). You're going to hear that a lot come Jones' turn to get drafted.

He's not Peyton Manning, though. He's more like some combination of Eli and Alex Smith. Everything Jones does is... OK. He's entirely unremarkable as a prospect. He has the size you want for a QB, He's decently athletic. He has the throwing power for the NFL, if not anything that's going to challenge the upper tiers of the league. He's got enough mobility to move around and make a few plays on the ground. His decision making is... adequate.

The thing about being coached by Cutcliffe, though, is that you would expect to see more production from Jones than he managed. He was a career 59.9% passer, and only slightly above that as a senior (60.5%). His 6.4 yards per attempt were well below the Manning brothers. His numbers overall were only incrementally better than the previous QB in that offense, who later was an undrafted free agent. To be fair, though, the Duke receivers dropped an absurd number of catchable passes.

Jones is the QB most likely to be overdrafted. I don't think he belongs anywhere near the 1st round. He'd be a 3rd round grade for me.

Tyree Jackson: Jackson is one of my favorite what-if guys in this draft. If Will Grier could be Belichick's next Garoppolo, Jackson could be his next Jacoby Brissett: a guy with franchise QB-level physical gifts who really doesn't know how to play the position yet. Jackson has so many coachable flaws that need fixing, and I think a lot of NFL coaches would not be able to create the environment needed to do that much fixing, but Belichick and his staff does. They only had Brissett for one year before trading him away (which, by the way, was a terrible trade that should have earned more ire from Patriots fans, but the team's continued success - and Brady's lack of decline in 2017-2018 - papered over it). So we didn't get to see how far they could have taken Brissett with more time, but his stint as a starter in Indy showed how far they got him in one year. Tyree Jackson is both bigger and much more athletic than Brissett (he's 6'7", 250 pounds, and he ran a 4.59 40 - those are high draft pick tight end numbers). The odds aren't exactly stacked in Tyree Jackson's favor. I think he screwed up by entering the NFL draft instead of transferring and playing out his final year of NCAA eligibility at a bigger school as a grad student. He needed better QB coaching than he was getting at University of Buffalo, and a year at a top school could have brought him further along. As it is, he's extremely gifted but so rough right now that he's purely a long-term speculative investment.

He's definitely a late-round grade, but on a team that has the time to take on this project, he'd be super interesting.

* Nick Bosa is a carbon copy of his brother. From regular stats to advanced metrics to measureables, they are within the margin of error from each other. Watch their Ohio State tape and you need a timestamp to know which guy you're watching. They're more alike then Henrik and Daniel Sedin. They're more alike than Rick and Nick Bruiser. If Nick Bosa deviates in any meaningful way from Joey at the NFL level, it will be a shock.

I watched a highlights tape of Bosa, and the first play it showed didn't pre-snap spotlight which player Bosa was. But after two steps and just beginning to engage the offensive tackle, I knew immediately which guy it was. Turns out the play was his first sack in college football, tallied in his first ever game in college, as a true freshman. It was the kind of rep that would stand out on the senior tapes of any of the 1st round edge rushers, and it was in his freshman debut.

* The wide receiver position is an isle of misfit toys. There's a whole lot of flawed gems. Three guys that have my eye: AJ Brown, Deebo Samuel, and JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

* AJ Brown doesn't have the long speed to be a top draft pick, but he's a great talent that's likely to go low 1st or high 2nd round. Similar skill set as Juju Smith-Schuster but both heavier and faster.

* Deebo Samuel reminds me of another Jarvis Landry RB-body-at-slot-WR guy that catches and forces missed tackles to rack up YAC. Probably will end up around Round 3 due to lack of skill set for playing outside, buy likely to outperform his draft position

* JJ Arcega-Whiteside is a big, faster-than-expected receiver who caught more contested balls than anyone else in college football. In a draft of flankers and slot guys, he's one of the legitimate split ends. He's very Jordy Nelson, a guy who gets open by using his body rather than speed.

* Jonah Williams feels like a Joe Staley type of left tackle to me, and mocks have him going much later than he should. He's my top tackle. There's a few other good tackles. Jawaan Taylor is an immediate starting RT, big and strong and swallows people up, but not quite the technician you want on the left side. Dalton Risner is crazy strong and probably is a day 1 starting right tackle. Andre Dillard gas great lateral quickness and projects to a left tackle in a zone blocking scheme, but fits less well with a team that runs power.

* Rashan Gary is a physical talent that lacked production. But I think he was played out of position like the Niners have done with Solomon Thomas. Both guys belong inside at 3-technique instead of out on the edge.

* Gary's teammate Chase Winovich is interesting in that he performed very well as an edge rusher in college, but everyone thought his athleticism wasn't great for the NFL game. Then he went to the Combine and ran drills much faster than people expected.

* Montez Sweat has been evaluated like a top 15-20 player, but medical (heart condition) allegedly has him taken off of many draft boards.

I'm quite bored with this draft and most of it has to do with the top story recently being Bosa + Trump. Zzzzz.

Where the QBs fall, especially Murray, is the biggest question mark. I'm genuinely curious what the Cardinals do and I hope they slide down from the top pick, net a bunch more picks and then take a OT in the 1st. There's plenty of quality WRs for them in the 2nd and 3rd. Then look to next year for your stud WR.

Speaking of WRs, the Ravens will likely waste their 1st rounder on one. Shame they still have no idea what they're doing in that arena, but I expect they'll go big body WR who isn't afraid to block in the run game. I really hope they aren't turning into ground and pound in Baltimore.

Drew Lock has Jacksonville written all over him. All over him.

I came in expecting to not give a whoot about Haskins, but all the talk of his processing ability has me intrigued. I wonder if he'll end up in Denver, but then I realize that Elway doesn't want anyone smarter than him starting at QB, which is why Case Keenum was let go and Joe Flacco brought in. I'm not sure if you all are aware that Flacco doesn't have the world's fastest processing speed.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

Uh, Chiefs just traded their 1st round pick to Seattle for Frank Clark.

That's a win all the way around.

Edit: Uh, no more than that:

Seahawks agreed to trade their franchise player, DE Frank Clark, to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2019 first-round pick, a 2020 second-round pick and an exchange of third-round picks this year, per league sources.

In a turn of events, 49ers’ franchise kicker Robbie Gould has pulled his contract proposals that he sent to San Francisco and told the team he will not negotiate or sign a long-term deal with them, and he would like to be traded, Gould said Tuesday.

Since, in addition to the this year's first rounder, they trade the 2020 49er pick they got for Dee Ford, they paid a 1st Round pick to upgrade from Ford to Clark.

If Clark the 4-3 DE they need, I guess it is worth it. I was skeptical on Ford maintaining his level of play, and he is poor enough against the run that he seemed like a terrible fit for the 4-3. I guess this is also part of the cost of hiring Spagnuolo and switching schemes.

But there goes getting a CB in the first round.

And, yeah, there is also the DV crap.

Henry Standing Bear: It is a beautiful day at the Red Pony and continual soiree.

Castiel: I suggest we imbibe copious amounts of alcohol and just wait for the inevitable blast wave.

WR Marquise Brown has the build of Tavon Austin. He's not the next Tyreek Hill. Pass. (Unless you tell me he can add weight and be more like his cousin, then buy buy buy!)

WR D.K. Metcalf has those gaudy combine numbers and I think Matt Waldman's comparison to Josh Gordon is apt. Metcalf isn't the second coming of Calvin Johnson, but if he's the second coming of Josh Gordon that's damn well good enough for me. I love watching Josh Gordon gobble up a catch and then get another 15 yards after contact. At the same time, sounds like he sucks against press coverage and should be avoided at all costs. He's likely a Jaguar then.

I mention these two off the bat because they're two of the most buzzworthy WRs, but I think they're both busts.

WR Jalen Hurd is probably my favorite prospect. As a former RB become legit WR prospect he's practically tailor made for the Ravens.

Matt Waldman's RSP has Hakeem Butler as his top WR, while so does FO's Playmaker Score. Waldman bases on tape. FO bases on stats. The fact that the two come together and find a STUD without the buzz of a STUD tells me he's gonna make someone really happy on day 2 of the Draft.

Then there's a bunch of other WRs who continue to fail to stick in my mind, though I love Deebo Samuel's name. Deebo! Hey Deebo! Awesome.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.

WR D.K. Metcalf has those gaudy combine numbers and I think Matt Waldman's comparison to Josh Gordon is apt. Metcalf isn't the second coming of Calvin Johnson, but if he's the second coming of Josh Gordon that's damn well good enough for me. I love watching Josh Gordon gobble up a catch and then get another 15 yards after contact. At the same time, sounds like he sucks against press coverage and should be avoided at all costs. He's likely a Jaguar then.

I agree with the Josh Gordon comparison. I disagree with the idea that he can't beat press coverage.

Alabama tried pressing him on the first play of their game with Saivion Smith (who will likely be a Day 3 pick in this draft), and this happened:

They didn't press him after that.

Greedy Williams, one of the top CBs in this draft, had a good game against Metcalf. Williams is a tall, long press corner, but against Metcalf he played 8-10 yards off the line at all times. (Ole Miss could have used this to their advantage, but their offensive coaching and scheming is terrible. Metcalf did make the catch when they finally targeted him on a comeback route.)

Brett Kollmann compared Metcalf to Megatron, Demaryius Thomas, and Gordon. The first comparison is a bit much, but the other two are more on the mark. Thomas is a good comparison in terms of him being another guy coming out of a college offense that had no idea how to use him, which made him far more productive as a pro than in college. Gordon is a good comparison as well in being that big, strong, fast guy that dominates a limited route tree. You watch a Gordon highlight video and everything is a vertical route, some sort of go, post, corner, or seam route. Then he also runs comebacks and deep outs that get set up by looking exactly like the vertical routes and take advantage of defenders playing high over the top of those routes (like Greedy Williams against Metcalf).

Metcalf is not a complete receiver, and needs to be in an offense that will deploy him properly. The Steelers got some decent mileage using a less talented player (Martavis Bryant) in a similar way.

Matt Waldman's RSP has Hakeem Butler as his top WR, while so does FO's Playmaker Score. Waldman bases on tape. FO bases on stats. The fact that the two come together and find a STUD without the buzz of a STUD tells me he's gonna make someone really happy on day 2 of the Draft.

Butler would be a great day 2 pick. There's a lot of smaller guys in this draft, and Butler is one of the few big "X" receivers available. The knock on him is that he's got those "Amari Cooper on odd numbered years" dropsies. 11 dropped catchable passes this past year.

WR Marquise Brown has the build of Tavon Austin. He's not the next Tyreek Hill. Pass.

Chiefs agree to a contract with Frank Clark for 5 years, $105 million.

I really don't get what the Chiefs are doing. Essentially, they traded Dee Ford plus a 1st round pick for Clark, and then have to pay Demarcus Lawrence money to Clark rather than Olivier Vernon money like Dee Ford got.

I get that Clark is a better every-down fit for their defense. But is Clark a better option than Dee Ford and Clelin Ferrell combined? Because that's maybe what the Chiefs could have been looking at at pick 29. Or Dee Ford plus a linebacker like Devin Bush? Linebacker is a huge reason why the defense was so bad a year ago. Or safety, another huge hole in their 2018 defense.

Especially since they already traded for Ogbah and signed Alex Okafor. If you don't think Dee Ford can play 3 downs in your base package, you've got guys with size already that can play base, and can feature Ford in the nickel package. Maybe that's not ideal, but it's working with what you have rather than a solution that costs you draft capital.

It just feels like the Chiefs took two big assets to fix a problem that they created with their scheme switch, and still likely could have worked around.

If Spagnuolo turns the defense around, link me back to this post and I'll eat my words. But it feels like the Chiefs have made a lot of moves now (3 new defensive ends) and have few answers for the parts of their defensive depth chart that were actually their big problems last season. (They did sign Tyrann Mathieu, the one move that does help back there)

Yeah, I think it is just a fit issue, but it seems like an inefficient fix. I suspect the chiefs also had decided that the chances of another great year from Dee Ford was minimal, and had no interest in paying him on his contract year performance.

If last season was him turning the corner, this is pretty awful. If last season was just him taking advantage of an offense that gave them a ton of opportunities to rush the QB, during a year he he was motivated by impending free agency, then this still might have been a good swap. They got what they could for Ford, and then upgraded for Spags.

I don't think it is a such a bad deal that it dooms them, but it does seem to have used up resources that could have been used more efficiently.

Henry Standing Bear: It is a beautiful day at the Red Pony and continual soiree.

Castiel: I suggest we imbibe copious amounts of alcohol and just wait for the inevitable blast wave.

2018 wasn't the only year Ford got to the passer though. 2016 he had 10 sacks and a 12.2% pressure rate (52 pressures on 424 snaps). Last year he had a 14.9% pressure rate, which definitely is a nice bump, but not the first time he managed a good pressure rate. He just lost 2017 to injury. (And he even had a 12.8% rate in 2015 as a rotational player, though back then he struggled to convert as many of those pressures into sacks)

Clark, for the record, had 14.5% last year, 12.7% in 2017, and 15.9% in 2016. (That 2016 rate was with Cliff Avril lining up on the other side and earning his career best in sacks). Like Ford, 10 sacks is Clark's second-best season total, also achieved in 2016.

So, Clark has certainly been productive as a pass rusher the last 3 seasons, no knock there. I'm quite happy to see him leaving the NFC West. It's reasonable to argue he's a better scheme fit, it's just a question of cost.

Also worth noting, Clark played more in a wide-9, "Leo" edge rusher position in Seattle, as opposed to the more traditional 5/6-technique 4-3 end alignments. He has the size to play tighter in, but it does mean he'll have less room to operate with his first steps.

I expect we'll see KC address linebacker in the draft, and there are still bargain free agents out there that can help. Possibly they have some good bargain plans that had them feeling they could go more costly at this spot. We'll see.

For the Niners, I want to see Nick Bosa with that #2 pick. Especially since they acquired Dee Ford, they already have their lighter-weight "LEO" edge rusher. Bosa wins in close and would be able to play the 5-tech opposite Ford in base, and then of course in nickel the two edges just get set up wherever to go and attack.

If the unthinkable happens and the Cardinals bypass both Murray and Quinnen Williams and choose Bosa for themselves, I have a harder time with this pick. Josh Allen is clearly the next best edge rusher, but he's even lighter than Dee Ford and would be difficult to put on the field at the same time as Ford in base (unless they play Allen at Sam linebacker instead of 5T in base, which they certainly could do with Arik Armstead still on the roster to play the 5T spot).

Quinnen Williams would be hard to pass up with the #2 pick just from a player quality perspective, and Williams alongside DeForest Buckner would wreck the interior lines of the NFC West, but it would take Solomon Thomas off the field, ensuring he never develops. If they could get some trade value for Thomas, that might be OK, but if Thomas just ends up languishing on the bench, that's a rough waste of a #3 overall pick.

If Bosa is gone, a trade-down from #2 would be great. If they could get a later 1st round edge like a Brian Burns or Clelin Ferrell, along with additional draft picks in this and/or next year's draft, that would be a solid consolation prize.

I'd like to see them get a true centerfield safety in rounds 2 or 3. I don't love the idea of relying on Jimmy Ward to stay intact. A lot of the safeties in this draft are box safeties, which isn't what the team needs. Nasir Adderley is my top guy for this role, and he'll be a consideration with that early 2nd round pick. I also like Darnell Savage, who is underrated because of his size, but if he's on the board in round 3, I think he's a steal.

Also would like a wide receiver to add to the group. Obviously the Niners going forward are going to be Patriots-like in that Kittle is going to be the first option in the passing game like Gronk was for basically all of the post-Moss years. I have high faith in Dante Pettis continuing to develop into the Z-receiver role in the Shanny offense. A true X-receiver would be nice, someone like JJ Arcega-Whiteside. But the Shanahan offense works underneath so much that a "big" slot guy to work opposite Kittle would be valuable too, and that's where AJ Brown and Deebo Samuel would fit right in.

Finally, if they do get Bosa, I think Arik Armstead is a candidate for draft day trade. He's become a very good "big" end for a Seattle-style defense, but if they get Bosa and line him up at that spot instead of at LEO, I think Armstead would be a guy to move and get a pick for.

As for the Jags, top priority is protection. Foles isn't Russell Wilson, and needs a solid offensive line if he's going to play like Super Bowl Foles and not Jeff Fisher Foles. If I'm the GM, I'm spending two of their four picks in the first 3 rounds on offensive linemen, including probably that #7 overall pick. That means I'm looking at Jonah Williams and Jawaan Taylor. Williams I would put at left tackle and move Cam Robinson over to the right, where I think his athletic profile would better fit. Robinson struggles with speed rushers, while mirroring those kind of guys is what Williams does best. Otherwise, Jawaan Taylor would give the team a big mauling right tackle who is immediately a plus in the run game, and who can match up with the edge rushers he'll face over there.

(Most mocks have Taylor going before Williams. If there's an opportunity to slide down a handful of picks from #7 and then take Williams, I jump at it.)

If not one of the tackles, then I think the Jags take the top tight end, T.J. Hockenson. Hockenson is a very Jason Witten kind of tight end, someone that has the size to be an inline blocker, runs well (if not blazing fast like the non-inline tight end prospects), and has superb hands that drop nothing. An inline blocking tight end would be of particular value for the Jaguars based on how much they want their offense to be power running with Fournette, basically casting Hockenson in the exact same role Witten had in Dallas with their Zeke-powered offense. #7 is high for a tight end from a positional value perspective, but in this offense, being able to run block as well as catch has higher-than-normal value.

Beyond the first round pick, I think the Jags also have to be in the market for a centerfield free safety, so Adderley and Savage slot right in here too as targets. If they go with Hockenson in round 1 and one of the tackles that has late-1st round potential ends up sliding to the top of round 2, like a Dalton Risner, then that would be an incredibly easy pick to run to the podium.

Wide receiver is also a possibility, though I think the team has two undervalued guys in Dede Westbrook and last year's 2nd rounder, DJ Chark. It's hard to look good at WR when Bortles can't get the ball near you, and Chark's quad injury ended his year early. Protect Foles and I think we'll see much more from these guys, so I'm looking for another offensive lineman with one of the team's two 3rd round picks. Assuming the team takes a tackle in round 1, there's some worthwhile guard prospects likely to be there in round 3, depending on how the board falls.

Finally, I'm not counting on Calais Campbell beyond this year, and I don't yet have Ngakoue under a long-term deal, so if a good edge defender slides, that's a position I'd look at taking, to be a rotational guy in 2019 and an expected starter in 2020.

Fingers crossed a QB or someone coveted slides to 12th for the Packers and a team loses their minds trading up like last year.

Most mocks have Hockenson going in the top 10 and the Packers taking Noah Fant at 12. So 2 TEs in the top 12? I dunno about that.

I prefer a fairy tale scenario where a QB slides to 12th someone out smarts themselves and trades up and the Packers still land Fant at... 15th. The Washington expletives seem dysfunctional enough to do this.

This class is pretty weak at the "premium" positions. There's zero cornerbacks worth taking very early. The quarterbacks aren't particularly exciting, especially if Arizona takes Murray off the board at #1, so trade-down prospects from #7 aren't likely to be particularly hot. It's the best defensive line class in ages, but that's one position the Jags don't need to spend high on (especially after using last year's 1st on Taven Bryan, who will step into a starting role this year). Add in no top shelf WRs either, and a top tight end moves way up despite the positional value.

I don't see Noah Fant going at 12 though, or anywhere near it. Fant I see as very late 1st round at best, more likely 2nd round.

Today's one of the best days of the NFL season: the day Legion breaks down the QBs in the draft. Great work, as always. I really enjoyed it. I thought your Daniel Jones take was spot on -- he has career backup written all over him. Duke hasn't produced a decent pro QB since Sonny Jurgensen, and I don't think Jones will be the next.

Meanwhile, expect Carolina to take either an O-lineman or a pass rusher in the first round - probably an O-lineman. They're hoping to get a long-term starter a la Jordan Gross. Otherwise they don't have a ton of glaring needs - just a lot of positions that need upgrades like every other team in the league but nothing you'll probably find after the third or fourth round.

Fingers crossed a QB or someone coveted slides to 12th for the Packers and a team loses their minds trading up like last year.

Most mocks have Hockenson going in the top 10 and the Packers taking Noah Fant at 12. So 2 TEs in the top 12? I dunno about that.

I prefer a fairy tale scenario where a QB slides to 12th someone out smarts themselves and trades up and the Packers still land Fant at... 15th. The Washington expletives seem dysfunctional enough to do this.

I’d prefer they get a TE in round 2-4 than take Fant that early. If Hockenson is there at 12 I’m on board given his blocking.

I’m hoping for one of the Devin’s, presumably Bush since White will be long gone. An inside LB with speed and aggression would fix so many ills on this defense. I’d also be OK with a trade down and nab Risner for the OL but just not sure he is BPA at 12.

And we gotta get a safety at some point. Makes too much sense for Adderly to come home to Green Bay, would love to see them make that happen.

SallyNasty: Docjoe is a man of erudition and enlightenment, worthy of praise and respect!

I dunno about wishlists and I don't keep up enough to really be able to follow. I just want someone to replace Seumalo and/or Vaitai and/or be ready to take Peters' position.

OL definitely is on their list since they brought Jawaan Taylor for a visit, but he's likely long gone by the time they pick and I'm not sure they want to give up the firepower to move up for him from 1.25. Perhaps if he slides, but with the QBs all with less buzz than last year I feel like more OL will go early than the past couple of drafts.

That said, the Eagles will probably go with value and if we're looking at OL value then you're looking for someone who can play multiple positions. Jason Peters will be hanging it up and Kelce has one foot out the door. They need a LT and a Center of the future. LT is a bit harder to come by, obv.

NSMike wrote:

How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.